What do we have to do with those folks' war, and why do you mention it now?

What do we have to do with those folks' war, and why do you mention it now?” I said, “May Allah lead you to righteousness, we have mentioned it only after you added the name of Ali and mandated for him (of honors because) of the caliphate what is mandated to the Imams before him!” Said he, “And what stops me from doing so?” I said, “One tradition narrated by Ibn Umar.” He said to me, “Umar [ibn al-Khattab] is better than his son, for he accepted (i.e.

recommended) Ali's caliphate over the Muslims and listed him among the members of the (consultative) council of shura , and Ali referred to himself as the Commander of the Faithful; am I the one to say that the faithful did not have a commander?!” So I left.[^5] This incident clarifies for us the fact that the narrator is the leader of “Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama`ah” and their spokesman, and that they rejected Ali's caliphate because of what Abdullah ibn Umar, the Sunnis' faqih , says, a statement which al-Bukhari records in his Sahih .

Since they claim that al-Bukhari's Sahih is the most authentic book next to the Book of Allah, it is mandatory on them to reject Ali's caliphate and not to recognize it. We have discussed this “tradition” in our book So Ask the People of Remembrance , and there is no harm in repeating it here in order to make the benefit general.

In his Sahih , al-Bukhari quotes Abdullah ibn Umar saying, “During the lifetime of the Prophet, we used to regard Abu Bakr most, then Umar ibn al-Khattab, then Uthman ibn Affan, may Allah be pleased with them.”[^6] Al-Bukhari quotes another tradition narrated by Ibn Umar which is more frank than this one.

In it, Abdullah ibn Umar says: During the lifetime of the Prophet, we did not regard anyone as being the peer of Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Uthman, then we leave the rest of the Prophet's companions without making any distinction among them.[^7] Upon the premises of this “tradition,” which the Messenger of Allah neither mandates nor endorses, but one which is no more than the brainchild of Abdullah ibn Umar and his biased views and well known grudge and animosity towards Ali, do “Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama`ah” base their sect and justify their attitude as to why they did not recognize Ali's caliphate.

It is through “traditions” such as this one that Banu Umayyah permitted cursing, condemning, taunting, and belittling Ali. Their rulers since the reign of Mu`awiyah and till the days of Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan in 132 A.H.